Yankees ink NL home run champ Chris Carter to a one-year, $3 million deal

Chris Carter led the National League in home runs last season, belting 41 for the Brewers. (Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)

Chris Carter is bringing his big bat to the Bronx.

The Yankees took a flier on the free-agent slugger Tuesday, agreeing to a one-year, $3.5 million deal plus incentives with the slugger, a source confirmed to The News.

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Carter hit a National League co-leading 41 home runs for the Brewers in 2016, but was unable to find work after being non-tendered at season's end.

Accoring to the Associated Press, his deal includes a $500,000 signing bonus, a $3 million salary and $500,000 in performance bonuses: $100,000 each for 250, 300, 350, 400 and 450 plate appearances.

"I am excited to go play for a bigger market team with more national exposure," Carter told the AP.

The 30-year-old veteran certainly has flaws in his mighty swing. He hit just .222 last season with an on-base percentage of .321 and struck out 206 times in 644 plate appearances.

But it's a low-risk move for the Yankees, who can use the depth he'll provide at both first base and designated hitter; Carter has not played the outfield since 2014 with Houston.

Lefty Greg Bird − the favorite to start at first − missed all of last season due to a shoulder injury while righty Aaron Judge − expected to start in right field − has had his own problems with strikeouts, fanning 42 times in 82 at-bats. Righty Tyler Austin was also set to be in the mix at first, though both he and Judge have options, meaning the Bombers could send them to the minors.

The Yankees have shown this season is going to be a lot about player development − which means the kids need their share of at-bats − but Carter provides proven power for a team's that's also trying to win now, having belted 150 homers during his seven-year career while striking out 875 times and hitting .218/.314/.463.

Former Bronx Bombers Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez are all gone, and New York's leading returning home run hitter based on 2016 totals is Starlin Castro with 21, granted Sanchez slugged 20 homers in just 53 games as a rookie.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman had said recently that he was 99.9% certain his current roster would be the roster that headed to spring training. But Cashman left open the possibility of monitoring the marketplace and finding an opportunity like this one. The Yankees also reportedly made a late push to sign reliever Sergio Romo and checked in on free agent lefty Travis Wood.

At this point, you pretty much know what you're going to get from Carter. On a team with several young and unproven players, that's somewhat comforting.

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INTENTIONALLY UNPREDICTABLE

With baseball in talks to potentially eliminate the need for the intentional walk pitches, the game's pace of play in those spots will certainly be helped. But the small possibility of things going awry will no longer exist.

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Dellin Betances airmailed an intentional walk pitch last season, leading manager Joe Girardi to cancel those plans and have the righty pitch to the batter instead. Betances would go on to retire the batter.

Gary Sanchez also hit an errant intentional walk pitch all the way to the warning track for a sacrifice fly.

The minutes saved will certainly add up over the course of a 162-game season, but that rare chance that something odd happens will be gone.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER .500 PROJECTION

Baseball Prospectus came out with its statistical projection model Tuesday, and has the Yankees finishing 81-81 with a minus-2 run differential. BP likes Boston (90-72) — no surprise — to take home the AL East with Tampa Bay (84-78) finishing second and Toronto (82-80) third.